Transcript: Hugh Kopittke on Leadership, Breaking Records, and Building a Legacy

Good morning, and welcome back to the show. We are here with senior Goodwillie Prefect and Chalk Captain, Hugh Kapicki. How are you, Hugh? I'm doing very well.

I'm glad to be here. Great to have you on the show. Hugh, to start off, I believe you joined university school at the start of high school. What was that transition like for you, and what was your journey to U.S. like?

Yeah, so freshman year was my first year. It's a bit of a funny story. So my dad went to U.S., and I first visited the school in, I believe, sixth grade. I wasn't too impressed, admittedly, and so I told my dad, I was like, you know what?

Solon's a great school. I think I'll just stay there. And when I was approaching the start of high school, I kind of revisited that decision and decided to give it another chance. That was COVID, so I was in an empty school with Ms.

Townsend-Harts walking around the place, and I did really enjoy it and decided to come here. And I enrolled very late, was fortunately able to get in and come here, and it's one of the best decisions I ever made. And as far as the transition, it was very, very smooth. I think this place does a phenomenal job of making sure that people integrate seamlessly.

Do you think joining U.S. later gave you a unique perspective on, like, the school culture and what it means to be a U.S. student? Yeah, I do. I think, you know, unfortunately, kind of when you come as a freshman or even later, you kind of don't know what's going on. I determined that there's kind of two groups of people, especially as a freshman.

There's the people that are new to U.S. and there's the people that have been at U.S. And the challenge is kind of how do you join that group and mash those two groups together. So I think that if you come from another school, I came from Solon, there is a unique experience because you have to find out how do you become a U.S. student just as the ones before you are. But I think that kind of after the first few months, everyone, you can't even tell each other apart.

So, yeah, I think it's good. You've definitely transitioned well as obviously now you're a prefect. So what's your favorite thing about being the prefect for Goodwillie? I think my favorite part about being a prefect is kind of just being in the know and being in the loop.

I just really enjoy kind of like being a representative for people. You know, I enjoy being in the talks. Like, you know, people talk about the disciplinary things and stuff like that. But I more so enjoy, you know, being able to represent people in terms of things like, you know, CBA and Halloween.

We laugh about that. We had a lot of talks about that earlier. But I think it's great to be in a group of nine other amazing people that are trying to make this school a better place. And that's what I really enjoy.

You know, going to your many activities, as you were talking about at the beginning, you're also kind of in that role of being a prefect. But as a prefect, what's the most rewarding part? And sometimes what's the most difficult part about leading your house? I think very simply the most rewarding part is being someone.

Someone that people look up to. I think it's kind of a cliche answer, but there's no better feeling than walking through the hallways and knowing that almost every freshman that you've interacted with looks up to you in some way. And I think especially with Goodwillie people, but more so the entire class. You know, they knew me from the moment they stepped foot at the school.

And I think I've been able to be a great role in their life and help them transition, as we talked about earlier, into the school. I think sometimes the most difficult part, and as I'm, you know, kind of coming onto the back. into my senior year is how do you finish strong, especially as a prefect when you have higher expectations in some regards. And I think that's kind of what's been difficult for me is like, you know, I am feeling done at times, but how do I stay as a prefect? And how do I be beyond reproach as we are supposed to be?

And I think that's difficult at times. You're also on the student event committee. What's your favorite event that you've been able to organize? So this is kind of going to be a biased answer, but my favorite event that I've helped organize was the card game night, because I am the head of card game club.

And actually, when I was doing that event, I wasn't on the student event committee yet. So this was last year. And I came to Mr. Passa on the student event committee.

And I said, I have this idea, you know, to have a card game night. I have this great idea with all these great prizes and a great fun night. And I was able to work very closely with the student event committee to make that happen. That's actually what got me on the committee.

But when I was organizing that event, I was acting like I was on the committee. But that's definitely my favorite. If you had an unlimited budget, what event do you think you would organize for U.S.? Oh, man, that's a great question.

If I had an unlimited budget, I'd probably do a concert. I'd probably try to, you know, obviously artists are very expensive. I was just at Emory a couple of weeks ago, and they were talking about kind of their student event committee thing and how they put on a concert every year. They were talking about how they were quoting various artists.

It is very expensive. But I think that's what I would do. That's what I would do if I had an unlimited budget. Yeah, unlimited budget.

You know, going to that unlimited kind of idea, as a prefect, you have so many important decisions to make. And although you already have some influence on some of the choices at our school, if you had unlimited power, what's one school rule that you think you would change? If I had unlimited power? That's a very good question.

I would say that lunch is not required. I would say that if you, you know, I'd say that there's two lunches you can eat in either one. I do love the sponsor group aspect, but being a senior, it's very freeing to know that if you do have pressing work, you can just choose to either go second lunch or not eat at all. And I think that's one rule I'd change.

I don't know if that's the biggest, but that's all I can think of right now. I just ate lunch. Another one of your leadership roles is also being one of the track captains. Can you kind of walk us through your athletic career at U.S. in the process of really becoming a track team captain?

Yeah. So my first go at being an athlete at U.S. was the freshman basketball team, which I think you guys have experience with as well. And I was coached by none other than Coach K. And I think his main, main goal that year was to get me to run track, not to play basketball.

He won't like to hear that. But yeah, so that was my first kind of athletic endeavor. You know, Coach K was like, you know, you should do track. And I saw I could run on the court.

And I was like, let's do it. I'd ran track for one year prior in eighth grade, but nothing too serious. It was COVID as well. But so, yeah.

So then I started track. Did that the first year, freshman year, sophomore year. I actually joined the football team. So I did that.

Also ran track. No more basketball because I was doing indoor track. And then junior year, transitioned to being football manager after a couple injuries and was still running track in senior year. Basically just track.

And now we're rolling. I mean, I think I've been a leadership figure on the team since the day I stepped foot there. And I'm very grateful for the opportunity to be named a captain. And I think that the team that Philip Jack and I are cultivating this year is a really good one and a really good culture.

And I couldn't be more proud of the way we're heading in that team. And you actually committed to Emory to continue your career in track, which congrats, by the way. It's amazing. So what was that process like, getting recruited?

When did that start and how did it kind of progress? Yeah, so that's a great question. I started. I started my recruiting process in, I want to say, May of my junior year.

Started emailing colleges. I actually, I have a little bit of a coding background. And so I actually, I made a program that would email all the coaches for me. So I blasted out emails to every single coach, waited to see what responses I'd get.

I was looking in kind of the high academic D3 area. I got a lot of replies. I went on a few visits, a bunch of calls. A bunch of Zooms.

And honestly, I kind of knew what I wanted. I wanted a mid-sized school with great academics and I wanted it to be warm. And that last part kind of narrowed it down for me because a lot of the schools that I was looking at were kind of more north and the NESCACs and stuff like that. And I thought Emory was kind of everything I wanted.

And I just really pursued that. And by the end, I was really between WashU and St. Louis and Emory. And I was kind of down to the wire there at the end because I really, really did love WashU.

But I decided on Emory. And it was kind of a good start. Yeah. It was kind of smooth sailing from there.

Yeah. I might need that program because I'm the only out-coaches in it. Yeah, absolutely. It's a hassle.

You know, one of the things we kind of talk about is who influences you and who influences just you to keep on pushing. Who has been the most influential person in your athletic career at U.S.? I want to do kind of a double shout out if that's okay. I cannot, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Coach K as one of the biggest people that have impacted me, obviously, from the day I stepped out.

He was my coach in basketball and, you know, in track and obviously football as well. So every sport I've ever done here has had Coach Kennedy in it. But I also want to shout out Coach Nick of the basketball team. He and I have worked very, very closely this past year in terms of my mental skills and how I'm approaching the season from a mental perspective.

And I could probably do a whole podcast episode on all that, but I'll keep it brief. You know, I've focused on how I'm approaching meets and how I'm approaching touchdowns. I spoke to the basketball team and made it a part of their culture as well, talked about this idea of the current. So kind of taking each moment, you know, with equal, equal focus and not stressing about certain moments just because they might be quote unquote bigger than another.

So that's one of the main things I developed with Coach Nick and worked to transition that into the basketball team and then into track as well. And so he's been a very big, big part of me and my personal career as well as how I'm helping the team. Yeah. And you earlier this year, you broke the record for the four, or was it last year, you broke the record for the four by 100 relay, which is huge.

So how did that come to be? Yeah. So we had a great, a great four by one group last year. We had myself, Sam Selesh, Fernando Hokello, and Andrew Merritt, and it was a very talented group.

I'm very lucky to be a part of that team as a junior with three seniors and we did it at the home meet. So that was pretty cool on home turf. And unfortunately, we didn't go as far as we wanted to. We did drop the baton in the district meet.

Don't want to get too much into that, but yeah, we had a great group and we did some great things. And I'm not, I can't say I'm completely satisfied with the results of that team, but you can't be upset with the school record. So yeah. Earlier this year, you gave your senior speech on substance abuse, which is an issue that can really be difficult to discuss, but is incredibly important.

Yeah. So if you can get to hear it, could you summarize kind of the main message of your speech and what made you choose that topic and what do you hope people look from? Yeah. So my senior speech was a while back, first one of the year, and I talked about drug and alcohol abuse and I kind of zoomed it out to say, you know, a lot of people talk about how, you know, alcohol and drugs affect you personally and maybe your, your small intimate circle.

But I kind of wanted to zoom out and say, you know, specifically for drug use, how that's affecting not only you, not only your family. Not only your country, but also other countries. And I really focused on Mexico because I wanted to talk about, you know, drinking and smoking and all the, all the things that a lot of people talk about. But I knew that people have heard that, that kind of thing before.

And so I really wanted to make it so that people would realize that the consequences of their actions stem beyond, beyond just themselves and beyond, like I said, their immediate circle. And I think, I think people took that away. I think, I think I, I adequately conveyed that message and I think people took it away and I was very, very happy with that, that end product. And I hope that that leads people not only to recognize the actions of substance abuse, but also just actions in general and how they can affect people that you don't even know and never will meet.

And in that speech, you mentioned that you plan to abstain from alcohol and drugs. What are the biggest challenges for you to do that? Yeah. So, yeah, that's a great question.

So I think. Yeah. The easy answer is, you know, you're going to college, you're in high school right now. I mean, you're going to be going to parties, you're going to be hanging out with people and, and whether you like it or not, most of those hangouts and activities are going to include at least drinking and probably smoking as well.

I think people have this misconception that if, if you don't drink or you don't smoke, you're not going to be welcomed into a social setting. And I recognize that, that, you know, fortunately for me, I am, I think I am well equipped socially where I don't have to run into those challenges. But I think there is kind of this blown out of proportion narrative where if you don't drink, you're not going to be able to have fun or even be with people. And honestly, I've, I've, I've kind of ran into the fact that that's not the case, at least with me.

So I haven't had really much trouble at all. Yeah. Well, that's good. Cause my next question was going to be, what's your best comeback for people asking if you want to.

Yeah. So, um, I mean, I, I have my personal reasons why I don't drink. I mentioned them in the speech, you know, it has to do with some family things. And, and I think that if you respect me as a person, you respect me as a person, you're going to respect that response.

And um, so, you know, when at the college thing that I was at, I just, you know, explained to a few of the close guys that I was with why I didn't do it just out of courtesy for them. I want to say not to just be like this ominous, like, oh, I don't drink, blah, blah, blah. But you know, cause I don't want to act like I'm better than people. I just, I just want to say, this is why I don't do it.

And then if someone asks me, I'll just say, oh, I don't drink. And I've never had a problem with it. Not to say that problems couldn't arise, but you know, and, and the other thing I thought of was, you know, I just had a cup of ginger ale in my hand. And, um, no one knows.

No one cares. Um, you know, I look just like everyone else. I don't think you have to pretend, but you can, if, if you feel in a situation where you're not going to be welcomed otherwise. Um, but the other thing is kids are young, kids want to drink usually.

So they don't want you taking their alcohol. I think there's this misconception that people are trying to force alcohol on you, but in every setting that I've ever been in, people want to drink their own alcohol. So they really don't care about you. So I would say if you need a comeback.

Either. It's for a personal reason and, or just have a cup of whatever water, anything in your hand and you don't have to, you know, in all your free time, uh, you also involved in some of the drama plays at our school. What's some of the favorite shows that you perform? I know we're calling to your activities, but I know we even heard the other day you singing, right?

So where's some of the other, just like creative things that you're involved with? Yeah. So, um, I think the favorite, my favorite show that I've ever been in, um, was the Philadelphia. It was kind of like a short play.

Um, I believe my sophomore year, maybe it was last year, um, it was the fall play. There was, um, kind of like a, a diner theater, um, ask scene. So there was my small play and then, and then a few other productions as well. And that was myself and gave you, and that did that.

And it was kind of just the two of us and it was very, very fun. But yeah, I'm, I'm doing the musical this year. Um, I, I never have sang for a production before. Um, my brother Clark, he's, he's a very good singer.

He's recognized as a good singer here. Then. And then Steve, you know, I can't live up to the, to the, uh, shadows that Clark is casting over me. And, um, when he heard me sing, he said, you know what, you, you don't get it from Clark.

Clark gets it from you. And so, um, now I, I am singing in the musical and, and just kind of expanding my, my creative approach in that way. And I'm having a blast with it. So yeah.

Going to the point where you're talking about your younger brother, he's in our class, right? Clark's great. What was it like going through school, being in the same house, right? Goodwillie and then going to track every day with him.

And what type of kind of legacy do you want to leave behind? Yeah. So, um, I'm super close with my brother Clark and you know, you guys mentioned he's great. I think he's, he's an awesome brother and an awesome kid and I absolutely love being at school with him.

Um, I think it, it makes me sad when like, when kids have brothers, you know, at us that they are kind of upset to have and be with, and maybe they don't want to be in the same sponsor group or the same house, but I couldn't enjoy it more. Um, you know, I'm lucky to be very close with him. And, um, so it's just, it's just more time spent with him and you know, I, I think we're going to be just fine when I leave and I think we're going to be able to keep that, keep that relationship strong, but you know, I hope that he can mentor others in the way that I mentored him and other kids in his grade and his age group. You know, you're involved in so many different things, right?

We've gone through track, theater, leadership, breaking school records, organizing, organizing events and so much more. Jack and I constantly talk about how much dedication it takes to do everything. Yeah. Yeah.

Everything. And just so many things. It's not something most people can really, um, do without a strong sense of purpose. So what is your why?

What drives you to wake up every day and give your best to all of these different parts of your life? Yeah. That's a great question. Um, I knew it was coming, but, uh, I still don't have a solidified answer, but you know, what I'd say is, um, I want to be someone that people can come to, um, regardless of what the situation is, you know, I'll bring up coach Nick again.

He asked me a very similar question. Like, why do you run track? Why do you do the things that you do, blah, blah, blah. And I just said that what makes me proudest as an individual and what makes me most fulfilled is being able to, to be a resource for people, you know, people, my age, people younger than me, even people older than me.

And you know, I want to be a kid that you can come to and laugh with. And you know, I'm, I'm very funny at times and, you know, have a very sarcastic sense of humor. And I think people can appreciate that about me. But there's also times where, you know, I can be very serious and, and, um, be a very great resource in that regard for people.

And I think my why just boils down to the fact that I want to be someone for someone else that I hoped someone was for me. And I think that I'm constantly building towards being that person and being that resource for people. And I hope, like I said, with Clark, that I can inspire others to do the same. So yeah.

Yeah. And for all these years at us, you know, you've left your mark on countless programs here, but how do you want to be remembered? Yeah. I mean, I want to be remembered.

Yeah. As someone that was involved in a lot of things and, and was not defined by one moment or one activity or, or one aspect of me, like, you know, I don't want to be remembered as a track athlete, just as I don't want to be remembered as an actor. I just want to be remembered as someone that left a mark on a ton of different programs and people, um, kind of coming down to the same thing that I've been saying. But I think that's how you know that you really made an impact on a place, not just an aspect of that place.

And I think, uh, I hope that I've accomplished that through my time here. Yeah. Definitely. You know, thinking about your high school career as a whole, you've done so many extracurriculars.

What else is there? I mean, if you could go back, maybe look to yourself as a freshman or even look to your brother as a freshman and ask him or tell him one thing that maybe a club or event or some activity that maybe could be brought to us that you think would be really cool, what would it be? Yeah. That's, um, that's another great question.

Before I answer that, I just want to say like, um, originally I thought you were going to like, what, what's one thing that I wish I would have done that is here. And that would be like speech and debate or mock trial for me. I wish I could have done those things. Um, you know, with playing sports almost all year round, like you unfortunately just can't do those things.

But um, one thing that I wish there was more of was, you know, kind of like this and kind of, you know, I think people are opening up some sort of like sports broadcast stuff and you know, one of my ultimate goals is to be, you know, a GM of a football team or basketball team, you know, in the NBA or NFL. And I, I think that there's room for more programs in that regard, you know, not just playing sports, but how do you, you know, broadcast sports. You know, deal with, you know, the, the business aspects of sports. I think that that's kind of uncharted territory here and it's something that I've been thinking about recently.

I don't know exactly how you would implement it, but that's something that I'm passionate about and, and I think could be added here. Um, you know, you're involved in so many different things. Have you had any teachers or classes that really stood out during your time that you could give recommendations to kind of everybody to take? Um, so my favorite teacher that I've had here.

Here is Dr. Bonin, um, and I really, really enjoyed his AP English 11 class. Now that's, I don't think that's like a class that you could just choose to take. You can't choose to get him, but, um, I definitely recommend him as a teacher.

I don't know if he teaches any electives, but I really enjoyed that class because it was clear that Dr. Bonin really cared for individual, you know, talking and, and, and, um, you know, chatting about different, different things we were working on. Like, you know, I, I always had a few moments with him to discuss a work that I just, you know, just created and, and, you know, go over an essay or go over a book that I'm reading and, and really get into the weeds of it. Um, so I really appreciated that.

Um, one class that you can choose to take that I've really been enjoying this year is philosophy and ethics with Mr. Lito. So, um, kind of, kind of builds onto the foundation that I've been working on with Coach Nick about kind of my philosophy of life and, and getting to see that wide, getting to see the wide range of philosophies that exist, um, kind of helps you to build your own. And so that is one class I definitely would recommend taking.

We're getting towards the end of, um, the admission season here at US and you've had that experience of coming to US, um, from other schools. So if there's a kid that's kind of on the fence about coming to US, what's your best recruiting pitch? Why'd you choose to come here? Yeah.

I mean, I think the community is, is like no other, and I'm sure everyone's heard that a million times, but for me specifically, I think I can attest to it just because I know that if I was an actor at a public school, I would be treated differently than I was here. Um, you know, like that's just one example. But I think, you know, unfortunately there's certain things and activities that have stigmas on them. Like, oh, you know, you're a theater kid if you do, if you act or, you know, that that's all you do.

And I kind of talked about that earlier, but just the fact that I could be, you know, a high end athlete here and a good actor and do all this other stuff and not be labeled by one thing or be, you know, cast into this one group just because you do that activity. Um, I think that's the most special thing about it. And I think it really allows people to do things that they never would have done otherwise. And.

I love that about this school and I think that almost everyone can agree with that. Yeah. I definitely agree. And it's, you know, you're not the weird kid for doing something that one supports you and whatever you do.

As a prefect, what do you kind of hope this next class of prefects really brings to the table and kind of what do you like about the house system and kind of what do you don't like about the house system? Yeah. Um, so at the very beginning of this, of this kind of prefect prefect session, I'll say, um, we started in the summer and we, we worked together. We worked together closely, um, from that point forward.

And we, we were talking about all these, all these events that we wanted to make, you know, we wanted to do these game shows and we wanted to have a, excuse me, good focus on gratitude and all these kinds of things. And we've been able to do that. You know, you look back to the family feud that we had in assembly with, with Cam Shiver and I, and, um, those were the kind of things that we wanted to do. And we, you know, we had to push forward and make that happen.

I think both of you were in that prefect meeting where Mrs. Coy said, you know, guys, you have to. Um, you have to make your own initiatives and you have to do those things. So what I'd say and suggest to the, um, to the upcoming classes, whatever you want to do, do it, you know, don't, don't just have the idea and lose it.

Um, you know, in the house system, I love the support group that you get from your prefect and just, just knowing that there's someone that you can immediately go to. You don't have to question. Everyone always talks about, oh, find a trusted adult. Like the prefect is, I mean, sorry, that your sponsor is your trusted adult.

And, um, I don't think I have anything bad to say about the house system. I mean, it's, it's been great for me. Well, Hugh, it's been great having you on the show today. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your stories, insights, and experiences with us and to our listeners.

Thank you so much for tuning in and we'll hope you'll join us next Wednesday for the next episode of the Late Start Show. Thanks Hugh. Thanks guys.